1. Mr. Security from Beer Sheva: “Israel Doesn’t Have Good PR”
By Miran Spielberg, January 2019 (Translated from original Hebrew article)
https://sheva7.co.il/magazine/133743/
Sheva Magazine
So says Marc Kahlberg, an internationally renowned security expert of many year’s standing who
was involved with, among other things, security for the 2010 World Cup and the Euro 2012. In an
interview with Sheva Magazine, he relates how he applied the “Secure Zone” concept, which is
used today throughout the world; recalls the milestones of his fascinating career, which included
dealing with horrific terror attacks; analyzes the danger of the technological age; and remembers
the time when he lived in Beer Sheva.
Marc Kahlberg. Mr. Security | Photos: Courtesy of Marc Kahlberg
Marc Kahlberg is one of the more fascinating people you will ever meet. A true Zionist who immigrated to Israel
from South Africa, he decided to live in Beer Sheva, where he helped to develop the sport of tennis. He later
enlisted in the IDF, from which he joined the police force and served in a number of challenging positions. During
his police service, he applied his “Secure Zone” concept, which is now known around the world as Safe City. It
has been used throughout the world in various formats, including the 2010 World Cup and the Euro soccer
championships in 2012. Over the years, Kahlberg, who is considered a leader in his field, has worked as a
security consultant for large organizations, appeared as an expert in several prestigious international
publications, and has been interviewed by leading television and radio stations.

2. Kahlberg with future U.S. President Donald Trump in 2012
The Beer Sheva Connection
Kahlberg, 55, who lives in the community of Elyakhin in Israel’s Sharon region, immigrated to Israel from South
Africa in 1987, settling in Beer Sheva. Having played tennis in his youth in South Africa, he decided to engage in
that field in the capital of the Negev, too. So Kahlberg came to the long-standing tennis club on Bialik Street in
Beer Sheva’s Aleph neighborhood.
Kahlberg as a tennis instructor in Beer Sheva, 1989
“I went there to play, and from there I started all my tennis work in Beer Sheva,” Kahlberg told Sheva. “I took a
group of children and began to train them.” Kahlberg instructed children and teenagers who wanted to play
tennis, and within a short time he led his young charges to quite a few accomplishments in the late 1980s. Later
on, he taught tennis in the athletics center at Ben Gurion University, where he started new groups, including
groups for students.

3. Kahlberg recalls that back then, he played tennis at the university’s athletics center with Michael Oren, at the
time a lecturer in history at Ben Gurion University, who later became a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s
Office and served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States.
In the late 1980s, Kahlberg contacted Ian Froman at the Tennis Center in Ramat HaSharon and told him about
the potential that existed in Beer Sheva and the need to increase the investment in tennis there. And indeed,
within a few years, a large tennis center was built in the capital of the Negev, next to Vasermil Stadium. Ever
since its establishment, the center has given hundreds of athletes in Beer Sheva and its environs the opportunity
to play tennis.
When Kahlberg talks about Beer Sheva, he says with a touch of nostalgia: “It was my first home in Israel. I lived
in the Aleph neighborhood, and when I shouted from home, people would hear me on the tennis courts on Bialik
Street.”
Kahlberg lived in Beer Sheva until 1989. Since then, he has been back for several visits. “My son served in
‘Bahad City’ [complex of training bases], so I had the opportunity to pass through town several times when I
visited him there. I get the impression that Beer Sheva has developed amazingly in recent years,” he says,
adding that his eldest son lives there.
Safe City
Kahlberg is a world-renowned security consultant with more than thirty years of proven experience in the field.
His connection with security began back when he was teaching tennis in Beer Sheva. “I began volunteering with
the Beer Sheva police force while I was working as a tennis instructor,” he says. “Afterwards I enlisted in the
army when I was about 24. I did my service in the military police, and served in the Megiddo and Ketziot Prisons,
among other places.” Upon enlisting, he had to leave the world of tennis.
By the way, Kahlberg was no stranger to the military framework. Before immigrating to Israel, he had served in
the South African army in an infantry unit.
“We must be proactive in dealing with criminal and terrorist organizations”. Kahlberg
Kahlberg officially joined the Israel Police in 1996. His career there was an impressive one. “I started on the
force in Arad. From there, I moved to the Tel Aviv district, where I did intelligence and detective work. I was one
of the police officers who established the Foreign Nationals Department in order to deal with all the crimes
committed by people who came from abroad. Afterwards, I served as a detective in the Yarkon District. I was
attached to the Unit of International Crime Investigations a few times,” he recalls.
Thanks to his connections with the tennis world and his South African roots, Kahlberg also provided diplomatic
assistance to the State of Israel during his time in the police. “I established a tennis unit in the Israel Police and
took a delegation of officers to South Africa. We played against the South African army, the South African police,
and Maccabi South Africa. The whole delegation met President Nelson Mandela. I also succeeded in bringing a

4. South African delegation to play in Israel. Nobody thought it would happen, but fortunately, it did, against all
odds.”
Kahlberg served in the Netanya police force in the early 2000s during one of the city’s most difficult periods,
when it was contending with wars between some of Israel’s largest criminal organizations. At that time a number
of severe terror attacks befell Netanya and the surrounding area, which claimed many victims.
“I went through 16 terror attacks during that period, with the infamous attack at the Park Hotel being the worst of
them. I was there something like twenty minutes before the attack. The hotel manager was a volunteer of mine
in the Tourism Unit, and the detective unit. I went back to deal with the site of the carnage as the commander of
the tourism police, since the entire coastal area of Netanya was under my command. It was a horrific sight hat I
will never forget. There was also a terror attack at the Jeremy Hotel in Netanya, and three terror attacks at the
HaSharon Mall. The last terror attack that I experienced was at the HaSharon Mall in December 2005. By
chance, there were representatives of the New York Police Department (NYPD) with me at the time. As terrible
as the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York in September 2001 were, the police officers at the scene didn’t
see body parts. During the attack at the HaSharon Mall, the NYPD officers who were with me saw body parts
there, for the first time, and it simply shocked them. I am still in touch with three of the five representatives who
were present at that attack, and it’s something we haven’t forgotten to this day. I am not ashamed to say that I
underwent a great deal of post-traumatic stress from that period of terror attacks, but today I’ve gotten over
almost everything. Netanya was known then as a center of organized crime, and terrorism was not the only thing
I experienced. In one incident, a LAW missile was fired in the Poleg neighborhood as part of an underworld
assassination attempt.”
The terror attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya, which took place on Passover Eve in 2002, was reported all over
the world. In that attack, 30 Israelis were murdered and 160 were wounded. In terms of the number of dead and
wounded, it was the worst terror attack in Israel’s history, and is considered the primary motivation for Operation
Defensive Shield.
Kahlberg, whose mother tongue is English, spoke on live television for the foreign channels. “Journalists from all
over the world covered that attack. I remember speaking on CNN on the program of the well-known journalist,
Wolf Blitzer. I also spoke on CBS as well as on other international media outlets who decided to report on the
attack.”
As a direct result of the wave of terrorism that struck Israel in the early 2000s, Kahlberg applied the “Secure
Zone” concept to Netanya’s tourist quarter. This successful concept (which is known today around the world as
Safe City) is used throughout the world in various formats.
“After the attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya, the district commander who was there contacted me and asked
me to do something about it. The police commissioner at the time was Shlomo Aharonishki. In the context of the
Tourism Police, I did something that I called at the time a ’Secure Zone’. I recruited many sources on the ground
– owners of stores in the area, hotel receptionists, and municipal inspectors – good people who were in the area
all the time and could be trusted. I also recruited volunteers from all the communities, and we gave them
communications devices and integrated certain technology into the human intelligence scope. I knew who lived
in the area and in which apartment. It was simply a well-guarded area that became extremely difficult to
penetrate, both for criminals and for terrorists.”

5. Kahlberg (right), then commander of the Tourism Police in Netanya, briefing the Israel Police Commissioner
Aharonishki
“If someone who was unfamiliar came to the area, I knew about it, in real time, 24 hours a day. There hasn’t
been another terror attack since the attack at the Park Hotel, in the area that was under my command, though
there have been quite a few attempts, this is something that I certainly take pride in. As a result, all of the foreign
delegations that came to Israel to learn how to deal with terror attacks – be it the FBI or any other security or
police agency, came to me for training in Netanya. In fact, the Secure Zone model that I created, developed and
implemented has been used in several other places in the world. One of the very first clients I had after leaving
the Israel police force was the NYPD’s Counterterrorism Unit.”
Security for International Tournaments
Towards the end of his service in the Israel Police, Kahlberg found himself taking an active part in the police’s
public relations during the disengagement from Gaza. “In 2005 during the disengagement from Gaza, I was sent
to the south to train Air Force personnel for the disengagement assignment. Working with the Air Force people
was an amazing experience for me. Afterwards, I acted as the police spokesman with the foreign media. I
worked with thousands of media representatives from all over the world during the disengagement. In terms of
public relations, the State of Israel's conduct with the foreign media during the disengagement was brilliant.”
PR Management with the Foreign Media During the Disengagement
Kahlberg left the Israel Police in late 2005 and within a short time found himself back in South Africa, as part of
the logistical array before the 2010 World Cup to be held there. “I was asked to return to South Africa before the
World Cup in soccer,” he recalls. “I did all the planning, together with the Export Institute and the Ministries of
Foreign Affairs and of Industry, Trade and Labor. I did all the logistics in order to bring 35 Israeli companies
there. Thanks to that, Israeli companies did a great deal of business with local companies there. I worked there
as a private individual with our embassy and also with the South African ambassador to Israel. It went very well,
and afterwards I received several work contracts with the South African police.”
Marc Kahlberg with a senior officer of the South African police before the 2010 World Cup
He says, “The “Secure Zone” concept was used during the World Cup around soccer stadiums, as well as at bus
stops and taxi stations. I also drew up the whole emergency plan for a South African company for the period of
the World Cup. Despite all the warnings of terror attacks by Al Qaeda, everything went well during the

6. tournament. In addition, to this day there is an average of 60 murders per day in South Africa, and that statistic
has existed since 2008. I’m happy to say that during the World Cup, even though many soccer fans came from
all over the world to watch the games, nothing happened that was out of the ordinary.”
After his great success with the World Cup in South Africa, Kahlberg also worked with the 2012 Euro
championship, which was held in Poland and Ukraine. “The Export Institute invited me to an event before the
tournament. I focused on the part that was held in Poland. I conducted professional training there, worked with
the Polish counterterrorism unit, and was actively involved in everything concerning security in the stadiums.”
Kahlberg with a police officer from the Polish police counterterrorism unit, 2012
The Danger of Cyber Attacks
As someone who has worked with the foreign media in his various capacities on the police force, and in recent
years has met with key figures throughout the world, Kahlberg believes that the State of Israel has a severe
problem when it comes to public relations. “Israel doesn’t have good public relations,” he says firmly, and adds,
“Unfortunately, there simply is no good PR abroad today. I travel around the world a great deal and am exposed
to this problem. Public relations is not just about how to speak, but to whom one speaks, and who does the
speaking as well as how the message is portrayed.”
According to Kahlberg, “The Israeli government isn’t working properly in this field, and Israel’s failure in public
relations causes us severe damage, even in countries that are friendly to Israel, where there are many
populations who are unaware of what is really happening here. We need a full-time minister of public relations,
and we must invest in this and recruit suitable professionals. We need this today more than ever, because anti-
Semitism is on the rise all over the world.”
The following incident illustrates how badly Israeli public relations have failed in recent years. In 2012, ten years
after the terror attack at the Park Hotel, Kahlberg was invited to South Africa to speak with the Jewish
community about the attack. “I spoke before thousands of Jews on the eve of Memorial Day, but the day before,
I spoke at the King David School, where I grew up. I spoke there about what I went through then as commander
of the Tourism Police in Netanya. There’s something about that situation that really disturbed me. Some of the
Jewish students whom I met there, in the school where I grew up as a Jewish boy, were wearing a keffiyeh in
solidarity with a certain organization that has a long history of invoking terror attacks against civilians. They
claimed that Israel was too aggressive and that Israel was the problem in the Middle East. I’m talking about
Jewish children who attend a Jewish school. It upset me greatly as to these specific students, the one sided,

7. completely inciting media that they are exposed to has done a grave injustice to the reality of what we in Israel
face on a daily basis.”
Marc Kahlberg at King David High School Victory Park, 2012
Israel is a world leader in the cyber security field. A few years ago, a Cyber Security Center was established in
Beer Sheva, and according to Kahlberg, the cyber attacks that have taken place in recent years are possibly the
gravest security threat that the world is dealing with.
“A cyber attack can be worse today than an F-16 airstrike in many instances. Although cyber defenses are being
developed, and threats and attacks are being dealt with successfully, there is in fact no comprehensive solution
for cyber security. What we have been encountering in recent years with hackers who attack the systems of
large organizations, as well as the computers of private individuals, is terrorism in every sense. Sometimes, it’s
not just a private individual behind these attacks, but rather a country. We sometimes hear about large
organizations, whether giant corporations all over the world, or public agencies, that are attacked, such as the
health system in England, or airports in the United States, which recently suffered from such attacks. Not long
ago I attended a lecture by an official of the Israel Electric Corporation. He explained that sometimes, there are
tens of thousands of attacks against them each day from abroad. Autonomous vehicles are being manufactured
today – this is a growing trend. We need to take into account the fact that hackers can take control of those
vehicles remotely and make them have accidents. There are smart homes and smart cities; the question is
whether they can be secured in a way that will prevent them from being taken over remotely by hostile elements.
The world is moving forward technologically all the time and Israel is certainly a step ahead in the Cyber space,
but we need to consider that the more dependent and reliant we become on technology, the more vulnerable we
are to cyber-attacks.”
Kahlberg sums up with an important message: “There is something important that must be emphasized. What
we’re doing about crime and terrorism comes only as a response to an incident. We need to be proactive. That’s
the only way we’ll be able to deal with these phenomena.”